Fast Cooking -- How The Right Cutting Equipment Can Make You Cook Every Meal In Less Time

Do you battle to cut certain foods? Maybe your knife is simply blunt, or even more likely you are simply using the wrong one. There is a reason that there are so many different types of knives. Different foods have vary in size and texture, and optimize working with them, experts have developed a variety of knives that cater for the different food types. Besides causing frustration and unnecessary effort, battling with blunt or not suitable knives can cost you precious time when cooking. But if you choose your knife wisely, you will prepare your foods much faster and with much less effort.

If you have a collection of kitchen knives, experiment with them to find out which one cuts which foods best. Consider the following aspects for making your choice:
- sharpness of the blade
- knife type
- knife size
- alternate cutting tools

Sharpness of the blade
Expensive knives usually stay sharp longer and require sharpening less often. But cheaper knives also can have a good blade and only a poor grind. Have your knives sharpened by a professional, or if you have a grinder, by all means start using it! If your knife is sharp, it will be a joy working with it, as it requires way less effort and thus goes much quicker.

Knife type
Some popular knife types and their purpose are:
- Chef's knife (large all purpose knife): chopping, dicing, mincing and slicing
- Paring knife (small knife, a straight narrow blade): peeling, coring, cutting small foods
- Utility knife (slightly larger than paring knife): cutting medium-sized foods
- Carving knife (long thin blade): slicing hot meats
- Boning knife (long narrow blade): cut main bones out of a piece of meat
- Tomato knife (serrated edged): slicing foods with tough exterior and soft middle
- Bread knife: slicing foods with hard outside and softer inside
- Frozen food knife (saw-toothed blade): cut hard foods like frozen vegetables
- Lettuce knife (plastic knife): prevents edges of lettuce from turning brown after cutting

Knife size
Your knife should match the food to cut in size. Ideally, choose one that is slightly bigger than the food so that you can cut down straight. Using large knives for small foods or small knives for large foods is making your life more difficult than necessary.

Alternate cutting tools
- Poultry shears: specially designed for cutting a whole chicken or turkey
- Peeler: If you are one who can't peel well with a knife, a peeler can help you to peel your fruit and vegetables much faster. I figured out that I don't get along with every kind of peeler, so take the time to find the one that works for you.
- Chopping tools: Many small electric kitchen appliances do the chopping for you. You also get mechanical versions which are much cheaper. They will require more work than just pressing one button but will still be faster than chopping by hand, especially if you need to chop large amounts of food.
- Cheese cutter: Working similar to a grater, it cut's much more even slices of cheese from a large piece as you would do with a normal knife.

Now you should have an idea of how choosing your cutting tools smartly and keeping them sharp can save you time and shorten your cooking time. You can safe that time without any effort. If you anyways need to grab a knife, why not simply taking the best one for the job? It won't make you prepare a 2 hour meal in 30 minutes, but you definitely will safe some time, and even if you just win 10 minutes, that's 10 minutes you can use for other things, like relaxing in front of your favorite movie.